Efforts on to make dist open-defecation free

Chittoor: Rural Water Supply (RWS) Superintending Engineer (SE) G Venu said that 82,946 individual latrines were constructed till now from the total of 2.31 lakh units which were sanctioned for the district as part of the Swachh Bharat Mission. Speaking to the media here on Thursday, the SE stated that there is no shortage of funds for implementation of Swachh Bharat programme.

He informed that district officials were making combined efforts to make all villages to be free from open-defecation. “So far, 50 gram panchayats have been declared free from open-defecation in the district,” he stated.

Venu stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched Swachh Bharat Mission on October 2, 2014 to accelerate the efforts for achieving universal household sanitation coverage. “District Collector Siddarth Jain has been closely monitoring the progress of the Swachh Bharat programme in the district by involving all departmental heads,” he said.

The SE stated that an action plan has been finalised to cover 250 gram panchayats under Swachh Bharat and 341 gram panchayats under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) during 2016-17. He said that construction of 40,184 individual latrines were in progress in the district.

He pointed out that Rs 132 crore was spent under the scheme till now. “A district-level Swachh Bharat panel has been constituted to monitor the implementation of the scheme. In order to popularise the advantages of the scheme among the people living in rural areas, an action plan has been finalised to involve all the elected representatives, NGOs, teachers, government employees in a big way, the SE added.